Abolition, Anti-Slavery Movements, and the Rise of the Sectional Controversy

Mission to Fugitive Slaves in Canada: Being a Branch of the Operations of the Colonial Church and School Society . . . 1858-9.
[London]: Society's Offices, 1859.
Pamphlet.Rare Book and Special Collections Division. (3-4a)

Mission to Fugitive Slaves in Canada: Being a Branch of the Operations of the Colonial Church and School Society . . . 1858-9.
[London]: Society's Offices, 1859.
Copyprint.Rare Book and Special Collections Division. (3-4b)

In the wake of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, which forced Northern
law enforcement officers to aid in the recapture of runaways, more than
ten thousand fugitive slaves swelled the flood of those fleeing to Canada.
The Colonial Church and School Society established mission schools in
western Canada, particularly for children of fugitive slaves but open to
all. The school's Mistress Williams notes that their success proves the
"feasibility of educating together white and colored children." While
primarily focusing on spiritual and secular educational operations, the
report reproduces letters of thanks for food, clothing, shoes, and books
sent from England. This early photograph accompanied one such letter to
the children of St. Matthew's School, Bristol.

This controversial law allowed slave-hunters to seize alleged fugitive
slaves without due process of law and prohibited anyone from aiding
escaped fugitives or obstructing their recovery. Because it was often
presumed that a black person was a slave, the law threatened the safety of
all blacks, slave and free, and forced many Northerners to become more
defiant in their support of fugitives. S. M. Africanus presents
objections in prose and verse to justify noncompliance with this law.

This is a portrait of fugitive slave Anthony Burns, whose arrest and trial
in Boston under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 incited
riots and protests by white and black abolitionists and citizens of Boston
in the spring of 1854. The portrait is surrounded by scenes from his
life, including his sale on the auction block, escape from Richmond,
Virginia, capture and imprisonment in Boston, and his return to a vessel
to transport him to the South. Within a year after his capture,
abolitionists were able to raise enough money to purchase Burns's freedom.

William Reynolds.Reynolds's Political Map of the United States . . . .
New York: Wm. C. Reynolds, 1856.Geography and Map Division. (3-20)

The growing sectionalism that was dividing the nation during the late
antebellum years is documented graphically with this political map of the
United States, published in 1856. Designed to portray and compare the
areas of free and slave states, it also includes tables of statistics for
each of the states from the 1850 census, the results of the 1852
presidential election, congressional representation by state, and the
number of slaves held by owners. The map is also embellished with
portraits of John C. Fremont and William L. Dayton, the 1856 presidential
and vice presidential candidates of the newly organized Republican Party,
which advocated an anti-slavery platform.

Although the Southern states were known collectively as the "slave states"
by the end of the Antebellum Period, this map provides statistical
evidence to demonstrate that slaves were not evenly distributed throughout
each state or the region as a whole. Using data from the 1860 census, the
map shows, by county, the percentage of slave population to the whole
population. Tables also list population and area for both Southern and
Northern states, while an inset map shows the extent of cotton, rice, and
sugar cultivation. Another version of this map was published with Daniel
Lord's The Effect of Secession upon the Commercial Relations between the
North and South, and upon Each Section (New York, 1861), a series of
articles reprinted from The New York Times.

More than twenty years after the militant abolitionist John Brown had
consecrated his life to the destruction of slavery, his crusade ended in
October 1859 with his ill-fated attempt to seize the federal arsenal at
Harpers Ferry in western Virginia. He hoped to take the weapons from the
arsenal and arm the slaves, who would then overthrow their masters and
establish a free state for themselves.

Convicted of treason and
sentenced to death, Brown maintained to the end that he intended only to
free the slaves, not to incite insurrection. His zeal, courage, and
willingness to die for the slaves made him a martyr and a bellwether of
the violence soon to consume the country during the Civil War.

The friendship of Frederick Douglass and John Brown began in 1848, when Douglass visited Brown's home in Springfield, Massachusetts. Brown confided to Douglass his ambitious
scheme to free the slaves. Over the next eleven years, Brown sought Douglass's counsel and support.

In August 1859 Brown made a final plea to Douglass to join the raid on Harpers Ferry. Douglass refused. After Brown's capture, federal marshals issued a warrant for Douglass's arrest
as an accomplice. Douglass fled abroad. When he returned five months later to mourn the
death of his youngest daughter Annie, he had been exonerated. Douglass wrote this lecture
as a tribute to "a hero and martyr in the cause of liberty."

Harriet Beecher Stowe is best remembered as the author of Uncle Tom's
Cabin, her first novel, published as a serial in 1851 and then in book
form in 1852. This book infuriated Southerners. It focused on the
cruelties of slavery--particularly the separation of family members--and
brought instant acclaim to Stowe. After its publication, Stowe traveled
throughout the United States and Europe speaking against slavery. She
reported that upon meeting President Lincoln, he remarked, "So you're the
little woman who wrote the book that made this great war."

This poster for a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin features the
Garden City Quartette under the direction of Tom Dailey and George W.
Goodhart. Many stage productions of Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel
have been performed in various parts of the country since Uncle Tom's
Cabin was first published as a serial in 1851. Although the major
actors were usually white, people of color were sometimes part of the
cast. African American performers were often allowed only stereotypical
roles--if any--in productions by major companies.